
Lesson 10 for September 3, 1938
DAILY LESSON STUDY: Place a check mark in the proper space. ,
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SABBATH
Mordecai Is Honored
LESSON SCRIPTURE: Esther 6.
MEMORY VERSE: "If Mordecai
be
of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou
hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him."
Esther 6:13, last sentence.
SEED THOUGHT: "The Bible has little to say in praise of men. Little space
is given to recounting the virtues of even the best men who have ever lived. This
silence is not without purpose; it is not without a lesson. All the good qualities that
men possess are the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God
through Christ. Since they owe all to God, the glory of whatever they are or do,
belongs to Him alone; they are but instruments in His hands.. . . It is impossible for
us, in our own strength, to maintain the conflict; and whatever diverts the mind from
God, whatever leads to self-exaltation or to self-dependence, is surely preparing the
way for our overthrow. The tenor of the Bible is to inculcate distrust of human
power and to encourage trust in divine power."—"Patriarchs and Prophets," p. 717.
THE KING'S SLEEP IS TROUBLED
1.
When the king could not sleep the night following Esther's banquet,
what did he do? Esther 6:1.
2.
As the courtiers read, of what outstanding incident was the king
reminded? Verse
2.
NOTE.—An interesting side light on the chronicles for which King Ahasuerus
called, is given in Clarke's Commentary on chapter 6, as follows:
"It may be well asked, Why should the king, in such a perturbed state
of mind, wish such a dry detail, as chronicles afford, to be read to him? But
the truth is, as chronicles were composed among the Persians, he could not
have brought before him any work more instructive, and more entertaining;
because they were all written in verse, and were generally the work of the
most eminent poets in the empire. They are written in this way to the present
time; and the famous epic poem, of the finest Persian poet, Ferdoosy, the
Homer of India, is nothing else than a collection of chronicles brought down
from the creation to the reign of Mohammed Ghezny, in the beginning of
thg tenth century. After thirty years' labor, he finished this poem, which
contained one hundred and twenty thousand lines; and presented it to the
Sultan Mahmoud, who had promised to give him a dinar (eight shillings and
sixpence) [two dollars U. S. currency] for every line. The poem was finished
A. D.
984; and was formed out of compositions of a similar 'nature made by
former poets. This chronological poem is written in all the harmony, strength,
and elegance of the most beautiful and harmonious language in the universe;
and what adds greatly to its worth is, that it has few Arabic words, with
which the beautiful Persian tongue was loaded, and in my opinion corrupted,
after the conquest of the major part of Asia by the Mohammedans. The
pedants of Hindustan, whether they speak or write, in prose or in verse, affect
this commixture of Arabic words; which, though they subjugate to Persian
rules, are producing a ruggedness in a language, which in Ferdoosy, flows
deep and strong, like a river of oil, over every kind of channel. Such, I
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